Many people face the challenge of translating text in a foreign language in newspapers, magazines and elsewhere because of, for example, absence of the requisite vocabulary, weak knowledge of the foreign language and so on.
Generally, optical character recognition (OCR) and automated translation require a lot of the computational resources of electronic devices. So, usually these technologies are limited to use in relatively high-performance computers (e.g., desktops, laptop computers) and servers, and these technologies are not readily available in portable devices and in all types of locations in everyday life: in the subway, in the car, in the journey to work, at a sporting event and so on.
There is a plethora of portable electronic devices with display screens capable of displaying text and a camera allowing these devices to capture and display a photographic image on their screen. Devices with a touch screen include many mobile devices, such as laptops, tablet computers, smartphones, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. The disclosed methods allow mobile or portable electronic devices to perform or access OCR functions and then to translate recognized text for use by these devices.
Modern, portable electronic devices have enough computer resources for supporting the use of electronic dictionaries, which may be installed locally or may be accessed on a network-accessible server. OCR systems and machine translation systems also may be available over networks, standards and protocols such as the Internet, WiFi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, etc. However, the information in these dictionaries has been locked up and not adequately integrated with other technologies. Meaningful, accurate and easily-obtained translation has remained elusive.